GSSA 50 years 18 June 2014

The Genealogical Society of South Africa was founded on 18 June 1964 on the historical farm Joostenberg. Since then the

society has made big strides and genealogy is firmly established

as a dynamic and growing hobby in the South African Society.Today was the 50th Anniversary of the Society. It was a pleasant cold winter's day without rain in Joostenberg. About 50 people, in good spirit, attended the event. Part of the festivities was to unveil a plaque that was donated by Philip Albert Myburgh the son of founder member Philip Myburgh. The plaque was donated by the Myburgh Alliance (Myburghbond) of South Africa, Trust. The same hospitality that was shown to the founder members with the establishment of the Society was experienced by the genealogists attending the unveiling of the plaque today. The guests were entertained at a tea party with traditional pastries.

Latest Events

Contact the Web Manager

Brokkies/Snippets

Aangebied deur vier takke: Noord-Transvaal, Vaaldriehoek, Johannesburg en Wes-Gauteng. 97 ywerige genealoe het die simposium bygewoon. Die sprekers het hulle baie goed van hul taak gekwyt. Die onderwerpe was uiteenlopend van aard. Apart from providing well researched family stories intertwined with history a factual description of the implications of the amendments to the the Copyright Act provided food for thought for the attendees. An exciting insight into the little known resources of the Police Archives was provided.

Margaret Gundry - Five Women from St Helena - I have been researching Sarah Riley on Tristan da Cunha and St Helena and again and again in my research I came across the phrase “In 1827 Captain Amm/Ham brought five ladies from St Helena as wives for the five bachelors on the Island.” It became my mission to work out who these ladies were by working from the baptismal and marriage records and then to try and trace them back to St Helena. I can’t say that I have been really successful so far although I think I have traced Sarah Riley back to a baptism on St Helena.

Robert Bush- Sometimes it is Easy. Researching my maternal grandfather, Jasper Bradley Hall lead me to a very interesting lady Catherine Hall (Wager). The Wirksworth.Org.UK web site, run by John Palmer provided a one stop research site for the Wirksworth area and I obtained a lot of interesting information on Catherine. ……. and …….. Sometimes it is Not So Easy. The second lady that I discussed was my paternal great-grandmother Emmah Miller (Hannah) 1861 to 1893, Graaff-Reinet, my oldest South African born ancestor. She is my one of my three brick walls and I have not been able to research her line any further.

Join Now

There are two options to choose from should you wish to become a member of the GSSA.1)Decide on the branch that you would like to join by visiting the GSSA website http://www.genza.org.za. Then on the page of the branch of your choice select “contact us” and forward your completed form to the membership committee member. 2) You can join via the eGSSA branch. Visit this page: http://www.eggsa.org/sales/eshop_e_dc_membership.htm and follow the instructions. The membership fee of the eGSSA consists of three elements, viz. membership of the GSSA; membership of the eGSSA and optional member of a land based branch as well. Download the apllication, complete the form and submit the form to the branch of your choice as described above. Application/Aansoek (Scroll down on the page for the Afrikaans version)

Sources

Many people pass idly by cemeteries and little graveyards next to the roadside. Very few people realise that on headstones a wealth of information lies to be exploited. Many genealogists will go out of their way to visit graveyards and cemeteries, Information such as birth and date of death, full names of the deceased and in some cases the name of the spouse can be found. This may lead to a breakthrough in the family researcher's quest. Over the years the members of the GSSA photographed thousands of headstone. These have been uploaded to eGSSA website.

DNA Research

There are basically three types of DNA tests: Y-DNA – Y-DNA is passed on from father to son along a direct paternal line and it is therefore possible to track the paternal surname from one generation to the next. For this reason, only men are eligible for this test. mtDNA – All children inherit mtDNA from their mothers and since mtDNA traces generation after generation of one's direct maternal ancestors, both sexes are equally able to determine the origin of their maternal line. Autosomal DNA – this ‘Family Finder’ test literally hundreds of thousands of possible SNPs for precise DNA correlations/matches with others across all of one's genetic lines. This test is therefore also available to both sexes

Copyright 2016-2018 by The Genealogical Society of South Africa. All rights reserved.